A Walmart shopper is pointing out a concerning discrepancy when it comes to the in-store pricing of some of their dolls.
“Hold on, I’m so confused right now,” TikToker Joy Cheyenne (@joyycheyenne) tells viewers in a viral video, panning her camera to reveal a shelf filled with “My Life As” dolls.
As she went down the line, she pointed out that each of the five varieties of light-skinned dolls were priced at $25.88, while the two dolls with darker skin were marked $27.17. In one instance, one of the white dolls and one of the Black dolls were even wearing the same outfit.
“I just find that a little interesting,” she concluded, suggesting in her caption that Walmart should explain the thought process here.
Why does Walmart price Black dolls higher than white dolls?
Joy’s video has been viewed over 765,700 times since it was posted in late August. And several of those viewers had their own theories as to why the dolls might be priced differently. One suggested the manufacturing costs of the dolls vs profit weren’t the same. Another simply wrote, “Brown tax.”
But what does Walmart have to say? The Daily Dot has reached out to the retailer via their website, but we may have some insight already, considering this isn’t the first time such a thing has happened.
Three years ago, a shopper found that the Kid Connection Deluxe 9″ Baby Doll Play Set marked “African American Doll Playset” cost $39.97 on Walmart’s website, while the white equivalent (which only bore the original name) was marked at $25.
After being called out for the discrepancy online, a Walmart spokesperson told WCPO that they had marked down a number of toys, but “overlooked the impact these changes would have on similar items.” They ultimately chalked it up to an “error” and adjusted the prices to match, although neither of these products appear to still be available on Walmart.com in 2024.
“Pricing error” is the same reasoning the retail giant made after being called out for the exact same issue back in 2014 as well. That time, the problem was Barbie. A Black ice skater Barbie cost $11.87 at Walmart, while a white ice skater Barbie was only $9.88.
“They should always be the same price, across all ethnicities,” a Walmart spokesman told CNBC at the time. “This is just a pricing error. We corrected it immediately.”
@joyycheyenne @Walmart ♬ original sound – Joy Cheyenne
Viewers are frustrated, but not surprised
As you might imagine, Joy’s comments section drew in a number of people who had experienced this sort of pricing issue at various retailers throughout their lives.
“They do this with the Bratz dolls too!!!!” one commenter claimed. “The black ones are always like 2-3 dollars more than the white ones.”
“Yeah, that’s been my childhood and my children’s. Now I have grands and it still the same,” another agreed.
“They did this in the 90s too,” wrote a thrid. “My mom always pointed it out at toys r us and made them price match.”
One minor upside here is that this particular price discrepancy doesn’t seem to be present on Walmart’s website at the moment, although it’s unclear whether that was the case when Joy originally posted her video back in August. The Daily Dot has reached out to her via email.
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